More than 100 students gathered in LeMoyne-Owen College’s Brownlee Hall on Thursday, Nov. 14, to protest the firing of Terrell Strayhorn, the vice president of academic & student affairs. They also protested by not attending classes. 

Students said they would remain in Brownlee Hall, where administrative offices are housed, including that of interim president Carol Johnson-Dean, until they were addressed by the board of trustees or received answers they thought were satisfactory regarding personnel changes that included Strayhorn's dismissal.

At points, students chanted “We want Strayhorn.”

Johnson-Dean, who did address the students, said the college had a budget shortfall of nearly $1 million, as actual enrollment was about 100 students short of projected enrollment.

“We had to go through everything in the budget and look for reductions we could make to balance the budget for the year,” she said. “So, what we’ve done is we looked at all vacant positions, we looked at materials, travel, supplies, and then we had to look at real people. And so, we made some reductions in some of our staff, some of our support staff, and we are reducing three of our top-level administrators.”

Johnson-Dean said the college is also restructuring Strayhorn’s former role: dividing up academic affairs and student affairs into separate positions, because having one person doing both roles was not “as successful as we wanted it to be.”

About seven people were affected by the personnel changes, including one person who is resigning, whose position will not be filled, according to Johnson-Dean. She said she had one-on-one meetings with impacted staff members Wednesday to inform them of the dismissals.

Students and the other faculty and staff received email notifications of changes. 

“The students clearly love and respect Dr. Strayhorn, who has been our vice president of academic affairs,” Johnson-Dean said. “... He’s endeared himself to the students. But the responsibility of the academic side and the responsibilities on the student affairs side really require very intentional, focused work.”

The appointment of Strayhorn, who was also a professor of urban education, was announced in July 2018.

Strayhorn left Ohio State University in 2017 after that institution questioned the propriety of payments Strayhorn received from speaking engagements and appearances.

While he was never charged with official misconduct or violation of OSU policies, Ohio State officials also faulted Strayhorn for inaccurate information on his curriculum vitae and for the appearance of playing favorites with a center staff member.

Strayhorn resigned in May 2017 and agreed to pay about $29,000 in restitution to Ohio State. He denied the school’s allegations and maintained his travel was properly disclosed and approved.

LeMoyne-Owen president has ‘full confidence’ in high-profile administrator Strayhorn

Johnson-Dean said that they were aware that a protest might occur, because the administration knew students felt very strongly about Strayhorn.

“The students believe that Dr. Strayhorn is the only one who cares about them,” she said. “And there are lots of faculty members who care about them. There are lots of people in student affairs who care about them. So, he’s not the only one. And I’d like to make sure that they understand that there is not going to be one person who is the keeper of all the culture around student leadership.”

Johnson-Dean said that the college believes in student leadership and the rights of students to speak up and protest. 

“We actually try really hard to get them to speak up for themselves, to advocate for themselves,” she said. “We think that’s part of the educational opportunity we provide, especially at a small, historically black college like LeMoyne.”

Raven Grandberry, a senior business administration major, said students were not satisfied with Johnson-Dean’s response, nor the process of firing faculty members, saying that student testimonials were not sought.

The protest was organized by the college’s Student Government Association, which posted a letter to Johnson-Dean online.

View this post on Instagram

Dr Strayhorn, our VP for Academic & Student Affairs, has been fired. We do not agree with this decision, and as such will be protesting tomorrow. We will not be attending classes tomorrow & we will be doing a sit-in in Brownlee Hall. Find us there.

A post shared by LeMoyne-Owen College SGA (@lemoyneowencollegesga) on Nov 13, 2019 at 1:57pm PST

Sainna Christian, a junior business accounting major, is LeMoyne-Owen SGA president. 

She said the protest was primarily about Strayhorn’s firing, which hit home because he interacted with students a great deal and students had developed a relationship with him.

Christian described the protest as a “call for conversation” with leaders of the college to sit down with students and provide them with answers.

She said students had a lot of questions and were dissatisfied with the answers provided by Johnson-Dean. 

“There’s lots of things at LeMoyne-Owen College which are really great about the institution,” she said. “And I do not want this one instance to overshadow … the things that the college is doing to ensure we’re prepared after four years to enter into the real world. We are pursuing this because we want to continue to make the college better.”

Christian said students still love the college, instructors and what the college provides, but they disagree with this particular decision. 

Shelby County Commissioner Mickell Lowery is a graduate of LeMoyne-Owen and serves on its board of trustees.

“From the student’s standpoint, you see them every day and they become just as important a part of the school as the education itself,” Lowery said. “That doesn’t always mean you’re privy to personnel matters. They see faculty and administration as an extension of the LeMoyne family. But, at the end of the day, those decisions have to be made by the president in a way that she sees fit and that just has to be conveyed to the students.”

Reached by email on Thursday, Strayhorn did not provide a comment about either the protest or his dismissal. 

Strayhorn was hired by former LeMoyne-Owen president Dr. Andrea Lewis Miller, whose contract was not renewed by the college’s board of trustees in July.

Johnson-Dean, former superintendent of Shelby County Schools, was named interim president at LeMoyne to replace Miller.

Reporter Linda A. Moore contributed to this article.